A Not So Modern Romance
by 21hrhn21
Summary: In which Aiden is a horse, Carmen is an evil sorcerer, Glen is a crime-fighting ninja, Spencer is a princess, and Ashley is forced to be her impromptu knight in shining armor. In other words: not much has changed.
1. The Mission

**A/N: Here's another one I've been working on in my spare time. I just got around to finishing it tonight, so I figured I'd go ahead and post it to see what people think. It's about 20,000 words so it's really not that long, but I'll probably post one part a day or something until it's all here. Unless nobody wants to read any more, in which case, review and let me know whether or not I _should _actually update this :)**

**Secondly, before you guys read this and have questions...No, I have absolutely no idea what I was on when this idea popped into my head. I started it forever ago, like maybe a month or something, so I don't remember how I thought of it. I _do _know that Shrek was somehow involved, but that's all. I don't know. This story does kind of remind me of Shrek, just a little bit. It's set in the same kind of time that Shrek's set in, with the princess theme and all that. But I Spashleytized it, which automatically makes it better. Haha. Just kidding. I love Shrek. **

**Anyway, no idea how I thought of this, or really what the point of it is, but I do know this: This story is not meant to be taken seriously. At all. In fact, I think it may border on ridiculous. So grab your "sense of humor" caps before you start reading this thing. **

**Thanks for clicking on my story, by the way :)**

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* * *

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_Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Ashley Davies. She was sixteen, and lived in the city of Farwell with her sister, Kyla, and her mother Christine. They were a poor family, abandoned by Raife when Ashley and Kyla were very young, and most of Farwell treated them like outcasts. Even though Ashley was older, she had always been considered the lesser daughter, and Kyla was often treated better, leaving Ashley bitter and hateful towards her family. As Kyla and Ashley grew older, another event occurred that put Kyla in the limelight: she fell in love with a prince. When the time came for Kyla to wed the prince and eventual king of the city, Aiden Dennison, however, a problem arose. With a curse cast upon Aiden by the sorcerer, Carmen, turning him into a horse, he and Kyla were unable to wed. Thus, Ashley was sent out to find a way to cure the curse, putting her own life at risk so that her family could marry into royalty and rid themselves of the poverty they had been subjected to for most of their lives. Little did Ashley know, the journey she was forced to embark on was going to change her life forever…_

* * *

"I _told _him not to go wandering around too far away from town!" Kyla is screeching as she paces back and forth in front of the fire we have going in our living room, and it's all I can do to keep a straight face while I let her have her freak-out. Christine, our mom, is looking just as anxious as Kyla is, considering Aiden and Kyla were supposed to get married about two weeks from now, and Aiden's family is literally royalty. He's the prince of our city, and back when we were younger, he used to be my best friend. Then his older brother died in a freak accident involving a severely pissed off dragon that needed slaying, which left Aiden next in line for the throne once his father's dead and gone.

Unfortunately, that turned him into nothing but a royal prick, we stopped talking, and now, five years later, he's gone and fallen in love with my younger sister, and my mom cannot _wait _for Kyla to marry into the Dennison family, considering our family isn't exactly nobility around here. In fact, we're kind of outcasts, because Dad left forever ago and everyone around here knows about it. They also know why Aiden and I always used to insist we'd never end up together, and when you're gay, some people tend to hate you for no reason. What all of those ignorant adults don't know is that I've slept with most of their daughters at least once. Hehe.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. Aiden's never really been that smart, and according to the messenger that just arrived at our house, scroll in hand…he's gone and wandered off into Carmen's territory, and as punishment, she turned him into a horse. That's all the information we have right now, anyway, but I have a feeling he must've really done something to piss her off.

Carmen's kind of the thorn in everyone's side that nobody has the guts to pull out. She's probably even more powerful than all of the knights in King Dennison's army combined, but luckily, she's more of a troublemaker than a downright treacherous cow or something. If we leave her alone, she doesn't kill us all. Simple as that. And hardly anyone ever tries to go near her.

Excluding Aiden, apparently.

"Can I see him?" Kyla asks desperately, marching back over to the messenger, who jumps a little when she grasps both of his shoulders.

"U-Um…the king is currently having tests ran…t-to see if they can find a way to reverse it. Until then, the w-wedding is to be postponed."

"Preposterous!" Christine exclaims, rising from the chair by the fire and joining Kyla by the door. I'm standing off to the side, glancing from them to the fire. There are two empty chairs beside it, now, and I'm normally the one who's stuck far away or on the floor, so I take the opportunity to take a seat. Face it: when you've got one daughter marrying _the _prince, and another one who's gay and 'flaunts her body so much she might as well work in a brothel', as my mom likes to say…the one marrying the prince might be the favorite by just a _little _bit. "We can't postpone the wedding."

"I can't marry a horse, mom!" Kyla whines. I miss the days when she was cool and we used to get along. Before Aiden got interested in Kyla, my sister and I were super close. I could tell her anything. Now she vaguely reminds me of Madison, one of the princesses of our city (no relation to Aiden, though). Do all of them really have to act like spoiled brats?

Then again, when Kyla and Aiden get married, I guess that'll technically make me a princess. Ha. Because that totally sounds like something I could pull off.

"Mrs. Davies!" calls another voice from just outside, and pretty soon another messenger is shoving the first one out of the way as I crane my neck to see exactly who's being addressed. "Not even the king's best wizards can discover an antidote to the spell that was put on Prince Aiden. The only solution is to try and get an answer from the sorceress herself. The knights have already proven to be no match for her, and the king has recommended asking you if there's anyone you could send in to try and get some answers."

"You mean a sacrifice?" Kyla gasps out. She's right. It might as well be a suicide mission.

"We aren't sure how she'll take having someone trespassing on her land again," the second messenger admits, turning to the first. "Go and wait halfway between here and the castle. I'll relay a message to you as soon as I get an answer." The first messenger nods, hurrying away, and the second focuses on Christine again, finishing with, "Normally, we would ask the man of the house to go, but…" There's an awkward pause. "If there's no one you can spare, the king will have to spend time taking extra precautions to make sure an army will get there safely. And not only will this be risky, considering we're not sure how Carmen will receive this army, but the wedding will have to be pushed back by at least another month."

Kyla and Christine both gasp loudly, and I clap my hand to my forehead, already knowing where this is headed. On the bright side, maybe I'll get turned into a bird and I can fly away from this hellhole.

"The wedding must proceed as planned," Christine says firmly, not even bothering to hide how anxious she is to move her lazy self into that big-ass castle at the center of the city. "We will send someone."

"Might I ask who?"

"My elder daughter," Christine replies, stepping to the side so that the messenger can see me sitting by the fire. "She doesn't intend to ever get married or to have kids, and serves no purpose in our family. She will go." I raise my eyes to Kyla's, but her expression is unreadable, and I can't tell if she even cares that I'm now having to put myself in danger to save _her _wedding.

I don't even pretend to look surprised.

* * *

So here I am, just outside the city walls, creeping through the woods, with absolutely _zero _defenses or weapons other than my fists. And it's not like I'm that good with those, anyway. Aiden and I used to play soldier together so often that I'm pretty good with a staff or a stick if I can get my hands on one, but that's really about it. With this thought in mind, I scoop up the next stick I see lying on the ground, gripping it tightly as a small cottage in the middle of the woods comes into view.

I take a deep breath, then exhale. Things are supposed to be peaceful if I can help it, so I force myself to stop sneaking around and just march right up to the cottage. I've never seen Carmen before, but I've already got a pretty accurate picture in my mind: pale skin, wrinkles everywhere, probably a few moles here and there, and really gross teeth. Should be fun.

I force my hand into the air and prepare to knock, but before I can move anymore, the door swings open, and there's this girl that looks to be about my age standing on the other side and looking at me expectantly. She's not exactly gorgeous or anything, but she is kind of pretty. Maybe I'm at the wrong cottage. "Um…I'm sorry, I thought this-"

"Come in," the girl says abruptly, grabbing my hand and tugging me inside, then closing the door shut behind her. "Ashley Davies, right?"

"How did you know my name?" I'm looking around now, and there are cauldrons and potions and things steaming everywhere and ohshitthisisCarmen.

"I know a lot more than you think I do," she replies cryptically, offering me a cup she's just picked out from the kitchen counter. Carmen actually has a kitchen? "Tea?"

I take a step backwards hastily, already feeling behind me for the doorknob. "N-No, that's okay, I was looking for someone else and I guess I got the wrong place so I better just-"

"You were looking for me," Carmen states just as my hand finds the doorknob. I jiggle it, but it's locked. "You've been sent here for a cure to Prince Aiden's condition."

My hand slips from the doorknob, and I gulp audibly. "Are you going to hurt me?" I ask, deciding to just go ahead and get this over with.

"Of course not," Carmen replies with a half-smile, and then she's stepping towards me again. I back away until my back is pressed up against the wall, but she doesn't stop until she has me pinned and her body is nearly pressed flush against mine. My eyes widen as she trails a finger down my jaw line. "Why would I want to hurt a pretty girl like you?"

"You cursed Aiden," I whisper, and if I'm not mistaken, this girl is actually flirting with me.

She frowns at that, and then pulls away, huffing loudly and crossing her arms. "Because he was an ass. Not only did he have the gall to trespass in _my _cottage, he presumed to think he could hit on me and get away with it. I meant to turn him into a pig, but he made me so mad that I accidently messed up the incantation a little bit. But I won't hurt you." She gives me another mischievous smile. "Even if you flirt with me a little bit."

"…You're Carmen?" is all I can manage to say, and she grins and does a little spin for me, tilting her head to the side when she's done.

"In the flesh."

"But…but you've been living out here since before I was born! I grew up hearing horror stories about you!"

"Appearance and age are two very different things," she replies, sitting down and taking a sip out of the cup of tea she offered me a second ago. "Anyway, you're here to save your spoiled brat of a sister's marriage, then? I'm supposed to turn that ass back into a prince?"

"…Yes." Right now I'm kind of thinking she's going to make me do a few sexual favors to get Aiden back to the way he used to be. Which is actually looking like a pretty good option at the moment, considering I didn't even know if I was going to make it out of here alive two minutes ago.

"Well…I can't."

"Excuse me?"

Carmen shrugs calmly. "Like I said…I messed up the incantation. I've been doing some research of my own, though…and it appears that the only way to undo the specific spell I put on him is something I'm afraid you won't be able to accomplish. It's a shame, really, considering you're the just perfect girl for the job…"

"What?" I press, knowing she's baiting me, but it's too tempting to ask about it.

"The antidote…you simply have to bring a princess with a completely pure soul to me, and I can brew a potion that will turn Aiden back to normal. The final ingredient I need to add involves extracting the soul of the princess herself."

"But…won't that kill her?" I ask, already formulating a plot to get Madison here just in case the answer's yes.

"Death is complicated," Carmen replies cryptically. "But…I suppose that yes, in accordance with the way your kind sees death…it will kill her." She shrugs. "But I didn't make the rules. It's either you do this, or your sister doesn't get married to Aiden. There's no other cure."

I furrow my eyebrows. "So…I just kidnap some princess out of the castle, and-"

Carmen interrupts me with a laugh. "Oh, no. I said her soul has to be pure, honey. None of those girls fit the bill."

"Then who does?"

"There is only one, as far as I know, and your journey to find her will be long and perilous. You must find her, then bring her back to me, and your task will be completed."

"That sounds way too simple to me."

"Well…there will be some obstacles in your way, as I mentioned…and when you find her, she will be asleep. She's been that way for almost three years now."

"How old is she?" I ask immediately. "How do I wake her up?"

"She's seventeen, same age as you. And how do you _think _you wake her up? The same way every other sleeping princess in history has been woken up. Kiss her, and she will awaken."

"Okay," I reply, unfazed. So I have to kiss a chick and bring her back here so she can have her soul sucked out. What else is new? "And I'm supposed to go alone?"

"That brings me to our next topic of discussion: you'll need help getting past the many dangers that lie in wait. As you may have noticed, I anticipated your arrival, and have found just the right-"

Something suddenly bursts in through the ceiling, creating a gaping hole, and I jump out of the way quickly as the thing lands beside me. It's a person, I realize, and he's kneeling in front of me with both of his hands pressed against the floor. His hair is blonde, and he's sporting all-black clothes. A sword is sitting in a sheath at his waist.

After a moment of me standing here in stunned silence while Carmen mutters some spell that makes the ceiling fix itself, the boy stands up and leans forward, grabbing my hand and lifting it to his lips. "Milady."

I snatch my hand away quickly, glaring at him, and Carmen explains, "Ashley, this is Glen Carlin. He's trained in martial arts, took ten years of fencing, and has been helping rid the area of thieves and bandits for the past five years of his life. No relation to Spencer Carlin."

"Who's he?" I ask, growing even more confused.

"I just told you, Glen is-"

"No, not _him_," I correct, gesturing to the boy still standing in front of me. He looks like he's amused by my current state of mind, and I decide I don't really like him. "Who is Spencer Carlin?"

Carmen laughs. "Oh, that's not a _he_. That's the name of the princess you two will be bringing back here. Her name is Spencer."

"Are you sure she's not a guy?" I ask curiously, and Carmen raises an eyebrow.

"Pretty sure." She clears her throat. "Anyway, I've already taught Glen the route to the castle she's being held in, and for a hefty sum, he's agreed to take you there. Mind you, this is coming out of _my _personal savings, so you better bring this girl back alive. And you only have two weeks to do it, so you need to get going."

"Why do I have to go?" I complain. "Why can't Glen just do it alone, or why don't you just poof yourself there, and-?"

"I don't know what people have told you about my abilities, but that certainly isn't one of them. As far as why you must go…you may find out in due time, but it is not my place to tell you. Good luck, Ashley Davies."

* * *

_"Gone to find cure. Will be back in two weeks with a way to turn Aiden back. –Ash" _is the note I have Glen sneak into my house and leave in the middle of the night, and he also manages to steal a knapsack and plenty of food. I'd have done it myself, but he's much quicker and a lot stealthier, and I didn't want to risk getting caught.

"So…what, do you, like, not have parents or something?" I ask him as we wind through a path in the forest with only the stars to guide us. I have to admit, it's creepy out here, but almost anything is better than going back to the city. I'm going to try and think of this whole thing as a little vacation.

"They died when I was younger," he tells me, ducking a little to avoid a tree branch hanging over our path. "I've been raised by some of the world's best martial artists ever since I was three years old." He glances over at me. "Anyway…what about you? I noticed you didn't seem too freaked out about the fact that you're going to have to kiss a girl. You into that kind of thing?"

Well, whadd'ya know? Looks like Glen's actually more of a normal teenage guy than I originally thought. "Does that bug you?"

"Nah. I'm getting paid for this whether I score with you or not."

"You're hilarious," I deadpan, and Glen throws an arm out in front of me suddenly, forcing me to stop. We both fall silent, and I listen carefully for any sounds he might've been hearing. There's nothing, though, as far as I can tell.

"We need to find a clearing, and soon. We can't sleep here," Glen tells me, pausing to listen for another moment, and this time, I hear it. A soft rustling noise from somewhere to the right of our path. Okay, now I'm a little scared.

Glen's tugged on my hand a second later, and then we're racing down the pathway, and when I hear that something's chasing us, I'm convinced I'm going to die. But at least it's not at the hands of some sorceress masquerading as a teenage girl.

A large, burly-looking shadow darts out of the woods from beside us without warning, tackling Glen, and a second later, I'm pinned to the ground by another shadow. The clouds shift out from in front of the moon, casting light down to the forest, and I realize that the shadow is a person wearing a mask, and the cold thing against my throat right now is definitely a knife. Shit. I'm gonna die, and Kyla's gonna marry a horse, and my mom's gonna kill me. Wait. She won't be able to kill me once I'm already dead.

"What's in the knapsack?" the guy above me growls in my ear, gesturing towards where it's lying a few feet away on the ground. Glen must've dropped it when he was knocked over. I can hear grunting and shuffling coming from my left, though, so it looks like he's putting up a fight.

"Just food," I breathe out quickly, shutting my eyes and hoping he won't be above me when I open them.

The weight I felt above me is suddenly gone, and I sit up quickly as my eyes shoot open.

The burly guys is on the ground about twenty feet away from me, groaning and clutching at his stomach, and Glen's got my attacker pinned to a tree with one hand. The other hand is busy holding a sword to his throat. "If I see you again, I'll kill you. Got it?" he snaps, and the man nods quickly, slumping to the ground when Glen lets go of him. I take another quick look at the big guy on the ground, and hurry over to my knapsack and pick it up off of the ground.

Glen's busy putting his sword back into its sheath, and when we exchange looks briefly, I can see him wink at me in the moonlight.

Okay, maybe having Glen around won't be _too _bad.


	2. The Kiss

**A/N: Since this whole story is already finished, fortunately it won't have any effect on my updates for ATT. Also, I split this up mentally already and it should turn out to have six chapters total. So like I said, it's not too long of a story. Just short and mostly light-hearted :)**

* * *

It takes two more nights and three more days to even get to the point where we can _see _the castle, but when we do spot it, I'm counting all the shit we're going to have to go through to get to it. First, there's a huge cliff we have to find our way down, then _another _cliff with a bridge that looks like it's got lava below it, a drawbridge we're going to have to figure out how to get around, and then a really _really _tall tower that it looks like we're going to have to climb to the top of.

"So that's where she is," I state, pointing to the top of said tower, and Glen nods next to me.

"Yup."

Despite my initial judgment of him, after three straight days of traveling with him, I'm beginning to think Glen actually isn't so bad. We're both pretty easygoing, so there isn't a lot of arguing, sleeping near each other isn't too awkward because he knows I'm gay and at least sort of respects that, which is something I'm not used to. Plus, with him around, I know I'm safe if anyone else attacks us like those two guys did on our first night of traveling.

On the downside, more people means more food consumed, and with Spencer traveling with us, we're going to start running out pretty soon. All the more reason to get back faster, I suppose.

"Alright, so how are we getting down this thing?" I ask, examining the steep drop beneath us, and although Glen could probably use the footholds and crevices to make it down with ease, I'm not a big rock-climber or cliff-scaler, and would most likely fall and die within my first two minutes of trying.

"Get on my back," he suggests.

"Hell no."

Glen frowns, then looks around for a moment like he's hoping something will give him an idea. "Here." He walks over to a nearby tree and starts tugging at the vine wrapped around it, unraveling it to a certain point and then cutting it with his sword. Next, he ties one end around the tree, and then throws the other end over the edge of the cliff. It touches the bottom, and Glen tugs on the vine for a moment, making sure it'll hold. "Alright, just use this, then. We can worry about getting back up later."

"You go first," I order, because I do _not _want to be sliding down that vine when it snaps in half. Sorry, Glen.

He shrugs, then grabs hold of the vine and slips over the edge easily, then pushes off of the side of the cliff a few times, letting the vine slip through his hands each time. Within two minutes, he's down at the bottom, waving up to me. "Come on, Ash! Your turn!"

Fuck.

Okay. Deep breaths.

I squeeze the vine until my knuckles are white, and then back up until I'm nearly over the edge of the cliff. I just won't look down. It's fine. Really.

I squeeze my eyes shut and just end up shimmying down the vine until my knees touch the ground, and when I open my eyes, I'm at the bottom of the cliff, and Glen is shaking his head at me with this knowing smile on his face.

"See? Told you it would work. Now we just have to get across this."

Oh, right. The _fiery _cliff with the shaky bridge made up of rotted wooden planks.

Glen makes me go first this time, but stays close the whole time in case something happens, and unfortunately, I _do _chance a look down, and end up feeling like I'm going to puke. The bridge is shaking a lot more than I'm comfortable with, and when a plank snaps beneath my foot, I've had enough.

"Okay, _no_. I already got attacked by bandits and had to sleep on the ground for three nights and walk all during the day and then scale that huge cliff and my sister is _so _not fucking worth all of this."

"Yeah, well it's my job to get you and Spencer back to Carmen safely, so like it or not, you're going." He pushes me forward lightly, and I gulp, then take another tentative step forward. A second plank snaps.

"Nuh uh, I'm seriously not-"

Glen gives me a sharp shove forward, and I stumble, cracking a few more planks beneath my feet, but then suddenly I'm on the other side, and Glen is stepping off of the bridge behind me.

"Alright?" he asks.

"Yeah," I squeak out, turning toward the castle, which is now close enough that's it's casting a shadow over the both of us and I can see the drawbridge about fifty feet away.

"Do you think there's a dragon inside? I've always wanted to slay one," Glen tells me, marching over to the drawbridge and withdrawing his sword. He slices the ropes holding the drawbridge up, and it crashes to the floor with a sound that ensures that if there _is _a dragon, it knows we're here. Luckily, there is no dragon.

There are about a thousand bats, though. And I do _not _like bats.

"Okay, seriously. I'm waiting out here. _You _go get her."

"You have to do the kissing," Glen insists, grabbing my arm and tugging me forward, into a room full of pissed off bats that are screeching and flapping their nasty wings and God I want to go home. Kyla can marry a horse for all I care, and it's not like I want to be royalty, anyway.

"My lips are chapped. You do it," I lie, and Glen pauses, examining my lips with furrowed eyebrows.

"They look fine to me. Now come on. We go up, you kiss this girl, and we travel back the way we came with her. No big deal."

"Fine," I groan out, but then something hard and flappy and black slams into my back, lets out a screech, and then zooms away, and I'm standing here with my eye twitching and my mouth open in shock. "It touched me!" I squeal out, spinning around to make sure there aren't any more bats heading my way.

"Look, the stairs are right over there," Glen points out, and I follow his finger to a large spiral staircase that looks like it'll take forever to climb. "The sooner we get up there, the sooner we can get out of _this _room, so let's go."

I'm not a big fan of being attacked by bats from all sides, so I let him drag me to the stairs, and we start the long trek to Spencer's room.

"According to what Carmen told _me _before you came along," Glen's telling me as we climb, "she's going to be lying on a bed up there, asleep, and only a kiss from her true love will wake her up."

"True love?" I repeat, unfazed. "Well, all this was for nothing, then, buddy, because I'm nobody's true love. And even if I was, that would make her _my _true love, so why would I bring her back and have her killed?"

"That's the part I was supposed to wait to tell you about," Glen admits. "Protection isn't the only reason Carmen wanted me to go with you. She said that there will come a time where you refuse to take the girl to her, in which case, I'll have to finish the job."

"That's bullshit," I insist. "I don't do love. Let's just grab this chick and go so that my sister can get married." I storm up the stairs past Glen, mumbling stuff about how true love is a load of crap and how this girl better be pretty if I have to kiss her.

It feels like it takes forever, but probably around ten minutes later, we're at the top of the stairs and there's only a door separating us from Spencer. Glen tries the doorknob. It's unlocked.

"Okay. Do your thing…" he insists, pushing it open.

"You're not going with me?" I ask, peeking into the room. I can see the whole bed, but there's this curtain hanging all around it that's blocking Spencer from view.

"Nope."

I sigh, then step inside the room, trying not to seem too nervous. It's not every day you kiss a princess, though. Sure, I've slept with a couple, but to just kiss one is kind of different.

Once I'm by the bed, I reach forward and clutch the curtain with my fist, sliding it out of the way so I can get my first look at the girl who's going to die for a stupid prince that got himself turned into a horse.

She's really pretty. And not in that trashy way that a lot of girls back at home are. Just a really cute and innocent type of pretty. She has blonde hair, and I'm guessing her eyes are blue, though I can't tell because they're closed, obviously. What surprises me the most, though, is that she's not wearing some fancy dress or something. Her outfit's hardly any different from mine, except for the fact that hers is more modest.

Okay. Right. Kiss her and then take her back to die. Simple.

"Done yet?" Glen asks, peeking in while I'm still looking at her.

"Give me a sec," I snap at him, and he grins sheepishly before ducking back outside. I turn back to Spencer, then crack my knuckles experimentally, wiggling my fingers a little bit before I lean over and press my hands to the mattress.

And now I'm wondering how I should do this. I can just lean over and give her a quick peck, or will that not be enough? Or I can climb on top of her and try to make out with her once she wakes up, but that might be a bit much, especially if she's straight. Then again, I'm apparently her true love, so she can't be all that straight, can she?

Anyway, I should really just go ahead and do this.

"Okay," I breathe out, basically just talking to myself here. I spot her hand lying palm-down on the bed, and poke it with my finger experimentally, to see if she's going to wake up. Nope. Her skin does feel smooth, though.

I retract my hand from hers, then reach forward hesitantly until I'm cupping her cheek, sliding myself halfway onto the bed with my leg tucked under me, then leaning over so my face is just above hers. If she wakes up right now…_awkward_.

I can't take my eyes off of her lips once we're this close. They're pink and smooth-looking and they don't look all bitten and _not _smooth like mine probably do. They really need to invent something to fix that. Her breathing's even and she's doing it through her mouth so the occasional breath is tickling my face.

_Anyway_…I need to stop staring. It's just a kiss, after all.

So I lean forward, keeping my eyes locked onto her closed ones until I feel like I just have to close mine too. The second our lips touch, a small little tingling feeling travels from my lips all the way to my toes, and I try to ignore it even though the feeling is nagging at the back of my subconscious like it doesn't want to go away. As soon as the it's passed, though, the lips that are still currently attached to mine slowly come to life, kissing me back hesitantly like Spencer expected to be woken up this way but isn't sure what to do now that it's happened.

I open my eyes even as we're kinda sorta making out but without tongue, and can't help grinning against her lips when I see that Spencer's eyes are still closed. Ha. This is kind of entertaining. She's kissing a girl and she doesn't even know it.

Figuring I might as well live this up while I've got the chance to kiss a pretty girl, I shift a little closer to her and let my tongue slip into her mouth, gently rubbing hers until she lets out a barely audible moan, and raises a hand to cup my cheek and pull me closer.

Okay, I thought this was supposed to be the girl with the pure soul or whatever. She doesn't seem that innocent to me. Who makes out with someone they haven't even seen yet, _and _with tongue?

Almost as if this thought is occurring to her, too, her breath hitches with surprise and she pushes me away lightly, keeping her eyes closed. "I'm sorry, that was-"

She cuts herself off with a gasp, because she's opened her eyes now and gotten a good look at me, then promptly scrambles away from me and falls off of the bed with a loud squeal.

"You're a girl!" I hear her yell, but it's muffled, and I think that might be because her face is pressed into the floor.

"Yup," I tell her easily, peeking over the edge of the bed just as Spencer gets to her feet. She looks a bit unsteady for a moment, and I think it's because she's not used to walking. She wasn't used to kissing, though, either, but she still did a good job. I decide now's not the best time to tell her this.

"But…but this isn't right!" she tells me, gesturing wildly as she begins the little mini-freakout I've seen dozens of girls go through when they first realize they're supposed to be straight but have just made out with a girl. "The only thing that can wake me up is a kiss from my true love!"

I snort, raising an eyebrow and crossing my arms. "Sorry, _princess_, but I'm not your true love. And even if I was…I don't do relationships."

"You're a _girl_!" she repeats incredulously.

"…Yeah. Thanks for noticing."

"No no no," Spencer mumbles to herself, beginning to pace back and forth. She looks like she's getting the hang of the whole walking thing. "This isn't right, this _cannot _be right…"

"Um, look…could you maybe discuss this with yourself on our way out of here? We have somewhere to be."

Well, the good news is: she isn't very likeable. So right about now, I'm not feeling too bad about luring her to her doom. It's probably best not to dwell on that, though.

"Where? Are you taking me somewhere?" She looks over at me hopefully. "Are you taking me to a place with a handsome prince awaiting my arrival? Maybe you're _not _my true love, and you're just meant to take me to him."

"Uh…_no_. There's no prince. Actually…" I debate with myself about how I'm going to go about telling her this. "See, here's the thing. I was sent here to find you after this evil girl named Carmen turned my sister's fiancé, who's a prince, into a horse. They're getting married in about a week and a half, and Carmen needs…a lock of your hair…to make the antidote to the horse spell. So I have to get you back to Carmen before the wedding so Aiden can get turned back into a human and he can marry my sister as planned."

"Well, I don't have to go _with _you, then. I can just give you some of my hair, and then-"

"And then stay up here and rot?" I suggest, raising an eyebrow. "Besides, Carmen says the hair has to be added fresh. Which means you have to go with us."

Spencer crosses her arms, eyeing me for a second with a frown. "…A prince?" she finally asks.

"Don't get any ideas," I warn. "He and my sister are totally in love. It's sickening."

"And what about you?" she asks me curiously. "Have you ever been in love?"

"Not even close," I tell her, shrugging nonchalantly. "And definitely not with any dumb prince."

"…So you're doing all of this just for your sister?"

"And my mom. She's been wanting in on the royal family ever since I was born. Everyone thought _I _was going to marry 'Prince Aiden', but they were all sadly mistaken."

"Why?"

I blink at her. "I kissed _you_, didn't I?"

"_Oh_," Spencer replies, giving me a significant look that tells me she understands what I mean. Isn't that convenient, though. Her supposed 'true love' just happens to be gay. I can almost see the cogs turning in her head, and I'm not really liking where her train of thought seems to be going.

"Anyway," I tell her quickly, changing the subject. "There's someone you should meet. He's just outside of here, and he's our protection on the way to Carmen's." I pause. "That is, if you're okay to go."

Spencer's silent for a moment, but then she sighs, brushing past me to head for the door. "Well, if you really _are _my true love -which I suppose you must be, although it's rather unexpected and I've never been into…well, _girls _before- then I guess I should help you help your sister. And just think…pretty soon, you'll be royalty, too!"

"Ugh. No."

"What's wrong with being a princess?" Spencer asks innocently.

"Because it's just been working out _so _well for you so far," I deadpan, pointing towards the bed suggestively, and she glares at me.

"This was only for my protection."

"From _what_?"

"Oh, the usual. Kidnappers, thieves…they're all the same. They all wanted to ransom me back to my aunt and uncle to make themselves rich."

"Aunt and uncle?"

"My parents died when I was little." She shrugs. "I was just a baby, so I never really knew them, and my aunt and uncle became king and queen of our city afterwards."

"Oh. I'm…sorry?"

"Don't bother. Anyway, let me meet our protection."

"Yes, _ma'am_," I mumble under my breath, leading her out of the room. Glen is leaning over the railing, staring down at the bats many many floors below us, but he straightens up and greets Spencer with a smile when he sees us.

"Glen Carlin at your service," he says, bowing, and Spencer looks surprised.

"Carlin?"

"Carmen already told us there's no relation," I assure her, though I have to admit that the blonde hair and blue eyes they're both sporting does make them look similar.

"I'm Spencer," she tells him, offering her hand, and to my amusement, he bends over and kisses it, just like he did mine. One thing I've learned about Glen is that he can go from one end to the other on the Gentleman Spectrum instantly, so you have to be prepared for it.

"It's a pleasure to serve you, milady. But make haste; we must descend these stairs if we're going to get you out of here."

"Um…okay…" Spencer replies shyly, blushing a little, and she looks over at me with this "OMG he's so hot" expression on her face. Then she remembers that I'm gay and supposedly her true love, and she looks away, embarrassed. Besides, Glen totally isn't even hot.

"Ready to go?" he asks, offering his hand to Spencer, but then retracting it suddenly, looking unsure of himself. "Ashley should probably be the one to help you down, since you two are all…_you know_."

See? Two totally different ends of the spectrum.

"Whatever," I say, grabbing Spencer's hand and ignoring the tingles, proceeding to pull her down several flights of stairs. She's complaining for most of the trip down about how her feet hurt and her legs ache, and I've just decided to forget about my neutral stance on killing her. Hell, bring on the soul-sucking, Carmen. Please.

And _then _she sees the bats.

I'm expecting to her freak out and scream like some stereotypical prissy princess like Madison would (or like I _did_, but whatever), but she just looks around in awe as these creepy things fly around her. "Wow…"

"They're just bats," I tell her with disgust, but they do seem to kind of be acting differently now that Spencer's in the room. One even flaps on over to Spencer and hangs from her arm upside down, which looks a little painful for Spencer to me, but apparently isn't.

"Aw…they're cute!" she exclaims, brushing a finger across its wing, and I seriously think I might hurl. Glen's watching us from a few feet away, looking like he wants to laugh but refraining from doing it for my sake. This girl is _nuts_. "I'm gonna call you Mojo."

When we exit the castle and prepare to try and get back across that bridge with the lava beneath it, _Princess _Spencer has a new pet bat.


	3. The Fight

"_No. _Sorry, no chance. I'd rather rot in the castle."

Nope, that's not me talking. It's Spencer. Apparently, there's something this girl can't do, and that's cross shaky bridges with rotted wood over giant pits of lava.

"Oh, quit complaining," I snap at her, marching over to the bridge and preparing to step onto it. "It's not even _scary_."

Glen raises an eyebrow at me, clearly thinking back to when he had to push me across this thing, but whatever. That was in the past.

The first plank I step on snaps in half, and I let out a squeal before I can stop myself, scrambling off of the bridge and practically into Glen's arms. Then I realize who I'm touching, and I jump away from him completely, trying to compose myself.

"And that's how it's done," Glen finishes dramatically, while Spencer giggles and "Mojo" proceeds to fly across the chasm without us. We're not _seriously _keeping that thing, are we?

"Shut up. Let's see you do it, then."

"Fine. I'll go first, to test things out, but Spencer, stay behind me the entire time. Ash, you can bring up the rear."

* * *

"It's cold."

I roll over beneath my blanket to look over at Spencer, raising an eyebrow. "Move closer to the fire."

Glen is already asleep a few feet away, completely exhausted after practically having to push Spencer and I back up that second cliff earlier today.

"I already did, and I don't want to get too close if I'm going to sleep. That's dangerous. And I'm uncomfortable enough as it is without being on _fire_. The ground's hard. I miss my bed." She clears her throat delicately. "And I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in like, three years."

I mumble a curse under my breath, then sit up and stomp over to her, plopping back down on the ground next to her and throwing my blanket over the both of us, so that now we have two. Spencer smiles at me, then snuggles up closer and nuzzles her face into my neck. I raise both eyebrows in surprise.

"Put your arms around me."

"Excuse me?" I reply incredulously. Who does this girl think she is?

"I'm _cold_."

Whatever. I obey her anyway, closing my eyes and trying to relax while she puffs out hot breaths against my neck. After a minute, she mumbles, "We fit together perfectly, you know."

I look down to where we're pressed together, and I have to admit that she's kind of right.

* * *

Glen has gone off to find extra food, since we're almost out, and Spencer and I have been ordered to stay by the fire until he gets back, so we do. I watch the sunrise while Spencer plays with Mojo. Seriously. She's playing with the bat, and it's playing with her. I repeat: _nuts_.

Eventually, she collapses next to me with a sigh, drawing her knees to her chest and leaning over to rest her head on my shoulder. I shoot her a disbelieving look, but she can't see it from her position. "You like watching the sun rise," she states quietly.

"Do not. I'm just doing it this morning because there's nothing else to do," I lie.

"No, you like it. And your favorite food is chocolate-covered strawberries, your favorite color is blue, and you're allergic to peanuts."

I open and close my mouth for a second, not sure what to say. "Um…that's creepy. How did you know all that?"

"I was told some stuff, before I was put to sleep. The sorceress who did it told me about my true love; what…well, I thought it was a he, but apparently not. So…what _she _was like. Those were just a few of the things she said."

"So it's really me, huh?" I ask, and I don't really know why that makes me feel so sad. Either way, she's going to have to die for Kyla and Aiden.

"Guess so," Spencer replies quietly.

"What else did she say about me?"

"Um…" Spencer's eyebrows furrow, and I can tell she's thinking back. "You're supposed to be two months older than me, I think. My birthday's December 4th."

Yup. I'm two months older, down to the very day. "October 4th is mine," I tell her, and part of me is hoping she'll think I'm lying. But she doesn't.

"I've been thinking…I really want to try this," she says tentatively, placing her hand over mine while they're both still on the ground. "Some people don't have a true love, and even if they do, most of them never find it. We did, and I think we should take advantage, even if things are a little…_different _than what I expected."

"What makes you think I even like you?" I ask a little harshly, and Spencer lifts her head, smiling at me hopefully.

"Because you snuggled with me all night long when I asked you to?"

In another situation, I would've taken the time to be surprised by the fact that she actually _does _have a sense of humor. "Spencer, you're, like…_nothing _to me. I don't believe in true love, whether you do or not. I only came and got you because Carmen told me to and my sister needs to get married."

"So you just want to be a princess?" Spencer blurts out a bit angrily, and I scoff, rolling my eyes.

"See? You _don't _know me." I stand up, storming away from her in the direction of the woods. I'd rather go find Glen than stay here with _her_.

"Well, I'm _trying _to _get _to know you," she tells me, standing up too and hurrying after me. We've just reached the woods when she grabs my arm and spins me around. "Look, I spent three years asleep, waiting for someone to come and sweep me off of my feet. Clearly, that's not going to happen, and I'm stuck with you, so we're going to have to make this work."

"Fuck off, _princess_," I order, shoving her away. "I don't want you."

"Well…I don't want you, either!" she shouts back, and I'm just about to start towards her when I feel a hand on my shoulder and hear Glen's voice in my ear.

"You weren't seriously about to attack the person we're supposed to be protecting, were you?" he mutters.

"Let's just get her to Carmen," I growl out, storming back towards the fire to collect our things.

* * *

We're back in the woods a couple days later, winding down the same path Glen and I have already traveled on, when we're ambushed once again. This time, there's five of them.

"Spencer! Ashley!" Glen shouts, already drawing his sword. "Get out of here! I'll come find you when this is over!"

Without further ado, I take off into the woods in a random direction, straying from the path with Spencer right behind me. Surprisingly, she's keeping up, but there is a third pair of footsteps a ways behind us. Someone's chasing us.

"Spencer, come _on_," I growl out, looking over my shoulder to see her falling behind. She opens her mouth to reply, then trips over a log and falls flat on her face.

Shit.

To my surprise, my first thought is just that she's a person and she needs saving. I'm not thinking about Kyla or Aiden as I turn around and dash back towards her, grabbing her hand and then pulling her up and tugging her behind the nearest tree. Whoever was chasing us wasn't close enough to see where we went, and I can only press Spencer up more tightly against the tree and hope we don't get spotted.

Rather large-sounding feet crunch leaves beneath them just a few feet away from us, and Spencer's eyes are wide and she's breathing heavily, so I quickly cover her mouth with my hand, giving her a pointed look that tells her she better shut up.

And then there's silence. This complete lack of noise that makes me think I've gone deaf for a second. And Spencer and I are standing here, waiting with baited breath, and hoping we haven't made any noise to make the guy following us think we might be nearby.

"…Is he gone?" Spencer whispers, and I am mentally cursing her stupidity as the large footsteps are immediately heading towards us.

Alright. Glen's not here, and Spencer sure as hell isn't going to do anything useful, so this is up to me. "Stand back," I command, snatching the closest heavy-looking stick off of the ground and gripping it with both hands. "And stay out of the way."

"Are you kidding?" Spencer asks, already tugging on my free hand. "You can't fight _him_!" She's gesturing towards the man that's just come into view now. He looks about six feet tall, is about five times my size, and when he smiles at us, I see that he only has one tooth.

"Watch me," I retort, pulling away from her.

"Hello, ladies," he says in this tone that makes me think he's convinced Spencer and I are two barmaids at the local tavern or something, and that we will somehow think he's attractive. My eyes are immediately drawn to the small hunting knife at his side. In this case, Spencer and I are the ones being hunted. The stick in my hand suddenly feels a little inadequate. "C'mon; you don't need to be scared," continues, taking a step towards us. I hear Spencer whimper from somewhere behind me. "I'm not gonna hurt you." Uh huh. That's convincing. Especially with the way he's already reaching for his knife. "Just give me anything valuable you might have, and I'll go."

His eyes slide from me to somewhere behind me, presumably to Spencer, and when I turn around, I see her staring at him reproachfully. Her hand is clutching at a small gold chain around her neck, and she doesn't look like she's giving it up anytime soon.

I turn back around quickly and take a swipe at the guy when he steps closer, and he laughs it off, stepping away and out of my stick's reach. "I think we both know you're not strong enough to beat me," he says, and before I can register that he's drawn his knife, he's heading straight towards me with it.

Oh, shit. I'm gonna die. Really, this time it's for real.

I swing my stick at him and hit him in the stomach, but he barely even seems affected. In fact, it's only made him angrier, and I have to step back quickly when he swipes at me with the knife. I feel a brief burning sensation around the upper part of my left arm, but I'm high on adrenaline and I hardly feel it.

I wrap both of my hands around the bottom of the stick, and then swing it up in an arc, aiming for between his legs. It connects, and he lets out a soft grunt as he keels over. I don't have time to marvel at my own luck, though. We have to get out of here, fast.

"Come _on_," I say to Spencer, grabbing her hand and pulling her along this time to make sure she doesn't trip again.

"Oh my God. Oh my God," she keeps repeating, and about ten seconds later, the rest of my brain catches up to what's going on with my body, and my left arm feels like it's on fucking _fire_. There's a cut across my upper arm when I look down, and while it could be worse, I'm not a very big fan of blood and just the sight of all of it makes me feel like passing out.

We're a good distance away from where we left that guy lying on the ground now, so I stop to lean against a tree, biting down on my lip and closing my eyes while I press my right hand to the cut. "_Fuck_."

"You're bleeding!" Spencer gasps out, reaching for my hand and trying to pull it away.

"No shit," I say through gritted teeth, refusing to budge.

"Move your hand, Ash. You were touching that stick; mine are cleaner than yours."

I let her pull it away this time, swallowing hard when she places both of her hands over the cut and begins to apply pressure. I'm surprised _Princess _Spencer is actually willing to do something like this, but my ability to be sarcastic isn't exactly working at full capacity right now, so I just stand here and try not to show weakness while we wait for me to stop bleeding so much.

A few minutes later, I hear something ripping, and when I open my eyes again, some of Spencer's shirt is in her hand, and she's balling it up, then using it to lightly blot at my cut.

Okay, so maybe I need to reevaluate my opinion of her just a _little_. But that's it.

"If we don't get this taken care of, it'll get infected," Spencer states, tying the strip of shirt around my bicep a second later. "We need to get out of these woods and find help."

I let out a sigh, bending my knees and sliding down the tree until I'm sitting on the ground. After a moment, Spencer kneels next to me, watching me intently. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," I admit, wincing when I try to move my arm. The pain has settled to a dull throb, but it still hurts like hell. Even in my current state, though, I don't miss the way Spencer's hand finds mine and her thumb skims across the back of it comfortingly.

"Thank you for protecting me," she whispers, leaning in closer. Her lips leave a tingling sensation where they touch the skin of my cheek. "This necklace was my mom's before she died."

"Yeah, well…" I shrug, and then wince. "It's fine. It was nothing."

Spencer swallows hard, then nods, helping me up off of the ground. I keep my arm cradled to my chest, because that's really the only position that doesn't make the pain unbearable. "These woods have to end somewhere. We can meet up with Glen later, but first, we need to get you help before that gets infected."

* * *

Spencer and I wander through the woods aimlessly for the rest of the day, and just as it's getting dark outside, thunder booms overhead and little drops of rain start to splatter onto the ground around us.

"Oh, I hope Mojo's okay," is the first thing Spencer says in response to the rain. "He hates water."

"Okay, first of all, how do you even know that? And secondly, I'm more worried about _us_ than I am that stupid bat."

"He's not stupid," Spencer argues, turning her head to glare at me, but then her eyes slide down to the bandaged arm I'm still sporting, and she looks a little guilty for yelling at me. But I'm not having any of it.

"Hey, just because I got hurt protecting you doesn't mean I want you treating me differently," I snap at her, trying to get her riled up again. Being nice to her won't get me anywhere when I'm leading her to her death. It'll just make things harder. "Keep hating me."

"I don't _hate _you," she retorts, crossing her arms and averting her gaze. "You hate me."

"So?" I don't hate her, but I'm not telling her that.

She looks a little hurt by my lack of a denial, then turns on her heel and continues trekking through the forest in the mud and rain.

"Hey!" I shout quickly, hurrying after her. "We have to stop for the night and find somewhere dry."

"Says who?" she snaps.

"Me. My arm hurts," I lie, because I know it's the only way to get her to stop willingly. "I need to rest."

It works. Spencer stops in her tracks and turns around, eyeing me warily, then states, "Some of these trees are big enough that we should be pretty dry under them."

Once we've found one, we huddle together under it, and I pretend that being this close to Spencer doesn't make me uncomfortable. My heart is totally not beating double-time and I don't tingle when her arm brushes mine or when our hands touch. Really.

Eventually, I scoot away from her a little bit, and Spencer looks over at me, confused. "Forgotten the lesson on body heat, already?" she asks with just a little bit of venom, and I glare at her.

"I just don't like being near you."

"Yeah, well…you aren't my favorite person in the world, either. I can't believe I ever wanted to try and be with you."

"You're annoying," I tell her curtly.

"Well…you're a bitch," Spencer spits out. I still don't see how the whole "pure soul" thing fits her.

"I should've never saved you from that tower."

"I wish you hadn't."

"No, I should've saved you from the tower, but then I shouldn't have protected you today. I should've let that guy take your mother's necklace." There. That's the most hurtful thing I can come up with. Because I really need her to hate me.

Spencer doesn't reply, and after about two minutes, I hear a loud sniff from her direction. I keep my jaw locked determinedly, refusing to say anything to her. I'll let her cry. I can do it.

Fuck.

"I'm sorry. That was…I didn't mean that. I'm glad I protected you." Spencer just sobs louder, and I slide back over to her, weakly adding, "Really. Please don't cry." I put a hand on her arm to try and comfort her, and she tenses immediately, but falls silent at the same time.

Eventually, she raises her head to look at me, and we stare at each other for the longest time, before she finally asks, "Why are you like this?"

I'm confused. "Like what?"

"I can't figure out what you're thinking. One second you act like you might be considering at least being my friend, and the next you hate me. You go from snuggling with me and getting stabbed for me to yelling at me and acting like you don't even want to be near me. Why?"

Well, I certainly can't tell her the _truth_, because "I'm really kind of attracted to you for some weird reason even though I can't stand you and liking you wouldn't be a good idea anyway because I'm secretly about to get you killed" wouldn't exactly be received well, I'm guessing.

This true love stuff is complicated.

Spencer sighs when I don't respond, then reaches for the bandage on my arm and says, "Just let me take a look at this, then, and afterwards we'll go to sleep."

"Okay."

I try not to wince as she unwinds the bandage and my cut is exposed to the air. It doesn't help that it's still raining out and every now and then a drop of water will slide off of the tree leaves and land on me. And then the wind blows and makes me even colder and this just all really sucks right now.

"You should be okay for at least another day," Spencer surmises, reaching for her shirt. "But you need a fresh bandage."

I watch her silently as she rips another piece of the bottom of her shirt off and starts to wind it around my arm, and I can't help but ask, "Why do you keep doing that? We could always use my shirt, you know."

"Well, I wouldn't want to inconvenience you, would I?" she replies with just a hint of sarcasm, but when I'm about to scowl at her, I notice that she's smiling slightly even though her eyes are still on her hands, which are still on my arm. "Not more than I already have, anyway."

"'s no big deal," I mumble, letting my eyes slide from her hand to her face as Spencer finishes tying the bandage around my arm. Now I'm feeling guilty again.

"I guess you must be nicer than you seem, anyway," Spencer replies, and I wish that she'd move away a little bit now that she's done fixing my bandage, "if you're willing to do all this for your sister."

"I didn't really have a choice," I tell her, sighing. "My mom basically sent me out on a suicide mission. She probably doesn't even think I'll make it back alive."

"That's awful." Spencer chews on her bottom lip for a moment, then adds, "But I'm sure _someone _must care about you. Your sister-"

"Is too obsessed with marrying Aiden," I finish dryly. "And the same goes for him. I really don't have anyone. If I don't get back for some reason, the only reason people will miss me is because I was the only lead they had on getting my sister married to Aiden."

"I'm sure that's not true," she mutters. "Your sister probably loves more than she lets on. I bet Aiden does, too."

I shrug, continuing, "If I don't come back, they have to find a new solution. _Nobody_ cares about me, really." It's never really bothered me, actually, except for when I get lonely occasionally. But I've already told Spencer more than I wanted to, and I'm done talking about it.

"_I _care about you," she says tentatively, reaching for my hand, and my gaze immediately shoots to where our fingers are now intertwined.

"You shouldn't," I warn, trying to will myself to pull my hand away, but I've never felt like this with anyone before and Spencer's hand is so soft and warm so I let her touch me for the time being.

"But I do," she says quietly, leaning in so close that I can see little flecks of dark blue in her eyes. "I don't want anything to do with you but for some reason I can't help but want to be near you all the time. I don't know whether to hate you or love you."

"Hate me," I stammer out, surprised by how bold she's being all of a sudden and by the dull throb that's suddenly making itself known between my legs. I've never been so turned on just by someone else's _voice _before, and it's almost out of nowhere. This is…shocking. "We shouldn't even be having this discussion, Spencer. I'm not…we aren't going to work."

"Why not?" she asks lowly, her eyes on my lips, and I manage to compose myself enough to pull away from her completely and scramble to my feet, hoping she can't see how flushed my cheeks are.

"Because we're just not, okay?" I tell her, already turning to go find somewhere I can go to get away from her. I need some Ashley time, because I can already tell this ache isn't going to go away on its own. "Stay here. I'll be back in a little while."

"Where are you going?" she questions, starting to stand up too, but I give her the most commanding look I can muster, and she immediately sits back down.

"It doesn't matter. Stay here," I repeat, turning on my heel and hurrying away, keeping track of which direction I'm moving in so that I can find Spencer easily when I need to.

After a minute or two of walking through the rain, I find a large tree and slip around it, resting my back against it and immediately shoving my hand down the front of my pants, groaning quietly. I close my eyes tightly and try not to think of Spencer, managing to convince myself that I'm only doing this because I've been away from home and therefore haven't had sex in over a week now.

When I get back to Spencer, she's fast asleep with her knees drawn to her chest and her head resting on top of them, snoring softly.

It's _not _cute.

Really.


	4. The Rescue

"It's starting to hurt again," I complain as night is falling on our second day wandering through the woods, and Spencer offers me the large handful of berries she's carrying. "Not my _stomach_. The cut," I tell her, aggravated, and she turns back around and continues forward.

"Oh."

Something about her tone of voice makes my heart sink a little bit. "You don't think we're going to find our way out of here, do you?"

"I don't know," she replies without looking at me. "We won't survive much longer if we don't, though."

Great. I got to the princess, survived the cliff and the lava and the bats and the thieves, and now I'm gonna die because Spencer and I got lost in the woods.

A wave of dizziness sweeps through me all of a sudden, and I let out a gasp and quickly grab onto the nearest tree, trying to steady myself. My body feels hot and cold at the same time, almost out of nowhere.

"Ash?" Spencer calls back to me, sounding annoyed, but when she sees that something's wrong with me, she abandons the berries in her hands and hurries back to me, resting a hand on my shoulder while she tries to make eye contact. My eyes are shut tightly, though, and I'm breathing almost too heavily to speak. "Ash, are you okay?"

"Do I _look _okay?" I manage to say, and Spencer sighs, lifting her hand to my forehead. I shiver at the coldness of her skin.

"You have a fever," she tells me. "That means your cut's probably been infected."

"How do you know all of this?" I ask her as she helps me to the ground and begins to unwrap my makeshift bandage for what feels like the hundredth time in the past two days.

"My mom was the best nurse in the city."

"I thought she was the queen."

"She was both. She liked to help people. She left books behind. I read them."

I hiss and pull my arm away from her when Spencer's finger brushes against the skin near my cut, and she sighs, glancing around us quickly before she wraps my arm back up and pulls me to my feet.

"Okay, come on. We have to find a way out of here."

"It's hopeless. We've been wandering for two days," I groan out, finding it way too hard to take a step forward, even with Spencer trying to tug me along.

"No it's not. We'll get out," Spencer says, but I only catch a few words of it, because my eyes are closing and I'm fading fast. "Ash? No, Ash, come on."

"Too tired," I mumble, realizing that I've ended up on the ground again somehow. That's my last thought before I've passed out completely.

* * *

"Her name's Ashley, right?"

"Yeah."

I feel a warm hand touch my cheek lightly, then unexpectedly pull away and hit it sharply. "Ow!" I groan, trying to force my eyes to open.

"Wake up, Ashley."

"What the fuck?" I mumble a second later, seriously angry that someone has decided to slap me across the face to wake me up. Even if it was pretty lightly. When I do get my eyes open, I realize that I'm lying in a bed. In a room. In…a house? A warm house. This is nice. "Who are you?" I ask the dark-skinned girl leaning over me. She looks like she's probably only a year or two older than I am. Whoever she is, she slapped me, and I already don't like her.

"My name's Chelsea," she tells me, straightening up and gesturing towards an equally dark-skinned man on the other side of her, who smiles down at me. "And this is Clay, my husband. He works for the city patrol and found you and another girl just outside the woods just a few hours ago. She didn't tell him her name, but she told us yours."

"Is she okay?" I ask, trying to ignore the way my left arm is throbbing painfully. Wherever Spencer and I are, it can't be in Farwell, because I've never seen either of these people before.

"She's sleeping in the other room. All she told us was that you had an infected cut and needed to be taken care of immediately. She passed out just a few seconds after that," Clay informs me, sitting down on the bed. "Chelsea has some medical experience and she got you all fixed up. Your fever's already broken, too."

"Can I go see Spencer?" I question, realizing that Spencer must've practically found a way out of the woods all on her own while having to also support me at the same time. I suppose we're even on the "saving each other's lives" scale, but I still want to thank her and make sure she's okay. In a totally platonic way, of course.

"Spencer?" Clay murmurs, exchanging a significant look with Chelsea, and I'm not quite sure what's going on. "Um…sure. You can go see her. She's just through this door." He helps me up and leads me to the door in question, opening it and then turning back to Chelsea. "I _knew _I recognized the blonde girl," I swear I hear him whispering as I enter Spencer's room, but I ignore it for the time being, focusing on sitting down beside Spencer's bed and watching her sleep. Chelsea's got her wearing all new clothes, and when I look down at myself, I see that my clothes are clean and new, too. My bandage is even a _real _bandage, now.

"Spencer…" I whisper, reaching forward and shaking her arm lightly. "Wake up…"

She stirs after a moment, letting her eyes flutter open, and then smiles at me. "You're okay?"

"I'm fine," I tell her. "How are you?"

"Tired," she admits with a sigh. "Dragging you through the woods for two hours can do that to someone."

I'm not really sure how to thank her for that, but luckily, I'm spared from saying anything, because Chelsea comes in a moment later with a question for us.

"If you don't mind me asking, what were you two doing in those woods in the first place?"

"We were heading back to my city when we got ambushed," I explain. "We had nowhere else to go."

"Your city?" she asks.

"Farwell."

Her eyebrows furrow. "That's about four to five days away from here," she informs us, and I frown. So we went in the complete opposite direction of where we were supposed to go. Lucky us. "Anyway, I think it's best if you two at least spent another night here after tonight. We'd be glad to have you, but we only have two beds, so you'll have to share this one."

"That's fine," Spencer says before I can even get out a word about not imposing on anyone, and Chelsea smiles at us, already moving towards the door.

"Alright. It's almost two in the morning, so I'll let you two get some sleep. Goodnight."

"'Night," I mumble, unsure on how I feel about sleeping with Spencer again, and in a bed this time. Chelsea leaves the room, and I slide under the covers next to Spencer, hoping she can't hear how quickly my heart is pounding.

"Farwell?" Spencer finally asks. "You live there?"

"Yeah. You've heard of it?"

"Yup. It's not too far away from where I used to live."

"Hmm. That means we can't be too far away from your home city."

"Yeah." She sounds excited. "Maybe we could go there after Carmen's. I'm probably expected to take over the throne, after all."

"Maybe," I agree lamely.

"Are you feeling better?" she asks me abruptly, and I nod, rolling over so that I'm facing her.

"Are you?"

She smiles. "I'm fine."

"Yeah." I clear my throat. "Alright, well…thanks for saving me."

"You saved me first," she points out, gesturing towards my bandage. "Looks like we both care a little bit more than we thought we did."

"Sure," I offer lamely, not sure how to respond to that. I can't tell if she's just being nice or if this is some elaborate scheme to get me to fall for her. Even though I kind of already have, just a little bit.

"Right. Well…goodnight."

"You too," I reply, rolling over again so that my back is to her and trying not to seem too uncomfortable with her body so close to mine. It's not that she's closer than she was when we slept together before. Things are just…different now, but I'm not sure why.

"…Ash?"

I sigh, then roll over yet again, trying to hide my surprise when she's a lot closer than I expected.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Um…" She bites her lip for a moment, staring into my eyes, then looks away quickly. "Is it bad if…if I kind of maybe like you a little bit?"

She's moving closer, and there are warning bells going off in both my head and my heart. I swallow heavily. "Yes."

"Why?" She stops moving forward suddenly, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I know you already said you don't like me."

"It's not that," I blurt out, wincing inwardly as soon as I've said it.

"It's not? I thought you hated me." She's chewing on her lip again, and I'm not gonna lie…it's kind of adorable.

"I just said that to make you mad."

She looks a little amused at that. "I'm not sure that makes me feel better."

"Yeah, well…" I trail off, forcing a smile, and Spencer surprises me by leaning forward and kissing my forehead for a moment. When she pulls away, she's blushing, and my own cheeks feel like they're on fire, too.

"I guess…the whole thing about you being a girl freaked me out for about the first ten minutes I knew you, but at this point I don't really mind all that much," she admits nervously, looking away from me again. "I mean…I don't know how I feel about the whole gay versus straight thing…but there's just…_something _about you. I don't know." She moves closer again, and I can't bring myself to pull away. We're staring into each other's eyes, and hers are so blue and sparkly that it's horrifying now to think about seeing them blank and lifeless. "Maybe we _are_ supposed to end up together, you know? Maybe that's why I like you even though we've practically been fighting ever since you rescued me."

"You shouldn't like me," I warn her again, lowering my voice because she's just so close and it'd be weird if I didn't. This whole situation is just scary for me, especially with the invisible force that somehow seems to be pulling me to Spencer. It's unnerving how much I want to kiss her right now even though my mind is screaming no and my heart is thumping wildly because I _know _this can't happen. It's just like what Glen said Carmen told him would happen: eventually, I won't want to bring Spencer back to be killed. I think now is when that time has come.

"It doesn't matter whether I should or shouldn't. I do."

I feel her hand slip to my hip and tug me closer just a little bit, and my breath hitches when our lower bodies touch.

"I'm new to this, you know…" Spencer continues, keeping our eyes locked this time, "I mean, I've been asleep ever since I was fourteen, after all. But no matter what we've said or done to each other over the past few days, I can't help but want this, want _you_. And I know I'm probably freaking you out right now, but-"

I can't believe myself right now, but I did it. I kissed her. I'm _kissing _her. And she's kissing me back.

I can honestly say I've never felt like this before, and I've kissed a _lot _of people. Spencer's kisses are so different, though. They make butterflies appear in my stomach and sparks dance in my mouth, and little dots flash behind my eyelids. I keep telling myself we shouldn't do this, but God, we _really _should. It feels too good not to be right.

And then it's over.

Spencer pulls away from me gently, and while my eyes shoot open in surprise, hers flutter open, and when they meet, we're both breathing heavily and somehow our legs have ended up all tangled together, but neither of us is making an effort to move.

"Wow," Spencer finally says quietly, lifting a hand to her lips, and I lick mine, my brain slowly coming back to life again. "Can we do that again?" she asks, laughing nervously in an attempt to break the tension, but I'm busy trying to persuade myself _not _to do this. I can't just let Carmen's little prophecy come true just like that, right? God, why the hell did I kiss her? I probably just made the biggest mistake of my life. "…Ash?" I'm brought back to Earth when Spencer says my name. "Are you okay?"

"No," I blurt out quickly, sitting up and scrambling out of bed and away from Spencer. She sits up, too, looking alarmed as I add, "I'm gonna go sleep on the couch. I'll see you in the morning."

"Ash, what-…_Ashley_!"

I pause with my hand on the doorknob and shut my eyes tightly, then take a deep breath and turn around to face her. "What?"

"What's going on?" Spencer asks me, getting out of the bed quickly and moving to stand in front of me. "What's _wrong_?"

"I told you: we aren't going to work out," I mutter, avoiding her eyes.

"You keep saying that, but you won't even give me a reason why," she hisses, placing a finger under my chin to get me to look up at her. I turn away again, and she grabs my chin this time, forcing my eyes to lock with hers. "I don't understand. What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing. You didn't do anything. It's me; I can't do this, alright?"

"I don't believe you. _You_ kissed _me_, remember?"

"I shouldn't have."

"But you did." She licks her lips, stepping closer until I'm practically pressed against the door. "And I want you to do it again," she repeats quietly, suddenly way too close, and I force myself to lift my hands to her shoulders and push her away lightly.

"Stop," I murmur, reaching around me for the doorknob, and suddenly, this is a lot like when Carmen cornered me all those days ago, except now I feel much more terrified. "Stop touching me, and…and, I don't know…whatever you're doing to me. Don't even look at me funny."

"You can't run from this," she warns. "You're my true love, remember?"

"I'm not your anything, Spencer," I snap, finding the doorknob a moment later and gripping it tightly. "Look. We'll get to Carmen's, you'll give her that hair, and then you can go off and find a nice prince to marry, and then you won't have to worry about being confused because I'm a girl anyway. You'll be happy, my sister and her husband will happy, and…I'll become royalty anyway, so…whatever." I try to forget that I'm lying to her; that she'll never find a prince because as soon as we get to Carmen's her life is over. She has less than a week to live, because Aiden and Kyla are getting married in seven days and I have to get her back to Carmen by then. I can't get attached. Any more attached than I already am, anyway.

"You don't want that," she states.

"You don't even know me," I repeat, remembering I said the same thing a couple of days ago, about this very same subject: me being royalty. "Maybe I do." I'm contradicting myself, and I know it.

"_I'm _royalty. We're going to end up married anyway, so-"

"Look around, Spencer!" I cut in, gesturing in every direction. "Do you see any princes married to princes, or princesses married to princesses? It doesn't work that way. People have their little affairs, their experiments…hell, I've _been _the experiment for more people than I can count on both my hands and feet. But nobody's _actually _serious. Nobody wants to be with another girl, or another guy. So stop trying. We'll never be anything, and that's before you even throw in the fact that I don't _want _to be with you. I'm not your true love, alright?" There. Let's see her argue with that.

"I tingle every time you touch me, you know," she replies simply, totally unfazed by my entire rant, and all I can do is stare at her in surprise. She's got this look on her face like she thinks her one statement is good enough to beat my entire argument, and after a few more seconds of just standing here, I'm starting to think maybe it is.

I think Spencer senses my uncertainty, because she reaches for my hand slowly and grips it, lightly pulling me away from the door and over to the bed, then sitting down on the edge of it and pulling me down with her. "I don't know if you feel them, but I do," she finally adds, running a finger down my arm for emphasis. It leaves a trail of tingles that almost make me smile.

"Maybe…you know, a little bit," I reply quietly. "I feel them a little bit."

"Then what's wrong?" she asks, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear, then kissing my forehead again.

I swallow, then force myself to smile, shaking my head. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong."

"So this is okay?" She leans forward just a little bit, touching her lips to mine gently, and I close my eyes instinctively, leaning forward too to increase the pressure.

"Yeah," I mumble against my better judgment.

Neither of us really says anything after that; we just kiss and kiss, everything from small pecks to borderline going further than kissing, and I can tell Spencer's having the time of her life. I would be, too, if it weren't for the knowledge that I'm _supposed _to have her killed.

But how the hell am I supposed to let them kill _Spencer_? She's like the most adorably cute girl ever, _and _she's a good kisser. And she makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside every time I'm near her.

Don't tell anyone I said that.

Eventually, we end up lying down together and just staring into each other's eyes until we fall asleep.

Spencer sleeps with a smile on her face.

But I'm pretty sure I don't.


	5. The Truth

When I wake up in the morning, Spencer isn't lying next to me, and even though I have no idea where we stand at the moment, I'm still freaked out enough by her absence that I hop out of bed and dash into the kitchen, looking around for any signs of human life.

The whole house is empty.

I step outside and take my first look around in broad daylight, hoping Spencer is just somewhere nearby. It'd be just like her to want to help Chelsea out with gardening or something.

People are milling about on the streets, and I join them hesitantly, feeling extremely out of place as I walk the streets of this city. Upon further inspection, I notice little signs all over the place and realize that I'm in the city of Corinth. I've heard of it before. Chelsea was right; it's about a four or five day trip back to Farwell from here, and I have six or seven days to get Spencer back to Carmen. If I'm still even doing that.

Last night complicated things, obviously.

Ever since I was young, I can remember my mom talking about how she wanted a better life for herself, and for Kyla and me. She was thrilled to find out Aiden and I were friends, and when she found out I was gay, it was the ultimate disappointment. The way she saw it, I had been our only chance at a decent life, at royalty. I was practically treated like dirt after that, and Kyla slowly learned that if she stood up for me, she got the same treatment.

Then she started hanging out with Aiden. He fell for her; she fell for him. My mom was thrilled, of course. For most of my childhood, Aiden had been my best friend, and I'd unknowingly gotten her hopes up, only to dash them at the last second. Then Kyla came in and made my mom's dreams come true.

So yeah, I understand. I understand why my mom hates me so much. I understand why Kyla was willing to have her sister risk her life. She's in love with Aiden, and she's been raised to dislike me. And I understand why I have to do this. I can't disappoint my best childhood friend, my sister, and my mom all in one go.

But I think I might be in love with Spencer.

A group of women talking just outside of a nearby store catch my eye when I hear one of them clearly whisper the words, "Princess Spencer".

I'm next to them in a second, asking politely, "Um..._what _about Princess Spencer?"

"Oh, sweetie, you haven't heard?" the lady that whispered originally asks me. I remain clueless. "Why, Princess Spencer has finally returned! Rumor has it Sir Clay and his wife Chelsea found her by the woods last night. They brought her up to the castle in the middle of the night to King Alfred and Queen Patricia, her aunt and uncle. Now Clay and Chelsea get to collect the five-hundred thousand shilling reward for finding her."

"Why would there be a reward for finding her?" I ask incredulously. "Weren't they the ones who locked her up in a tower in the first place?"

Okay, clearly, we aren't _near _Spencer's home city. We stumbled right _into _it. Great.

"Well, they couldn't very well check up on her all that often, could they?" the lady asks rhetorically. "So they decided to wait for her true love to show up and kiss her, and then hoped that if Spencer ever found her way back to the city, someone would notice and take her to them so that she could ascend to the throne when the time comes."

The ladies let out a collective squeal, making me wince, and one of the others gushes, "Oh, I can't _wait _to see who our future king's going to be. I bet he's handsome…it's a shame Prince Glen isn't here to take the throne instead, though. He died along with the original king and queen."

"Right…" I reply slowly, turning and hurrying away.

Alright. So… Corinth is Spencer's home city, Glen is _actually _her brother _and _a prince, I've been screwed over by Clay and Chelsea so they could collect the reward, and Spencer is currently in a castle with a lot of security, so there's no way for me to contact her.

Great. What to do first?

* * *

"May I see the princess?"

The guard in front of the castle takes one look at me and starts laughing. "Yeah, sure, go right inside. She's only just gotten back after three years of being asleep in a tower, but that's okay, we'll let _you _in to see her."

I don't miss the sarcasm. "Well…when _can _I see her?"

"The day after tomorrow," he says matter-of-factly. "Technically, she's not supposed to take the throne until she's eighteen, but she's more entitled to the crown than the current king and queen are, as the daughter of King Arthur and Queen Paula. Her coronation is in two days. You can come and watch, along with the rest of the city."

"Okay, but that doesn't work for me," I reply, annoyed. "I need to talk to her now, and in person, and preferably alone."

"I doubt you even know her," he responds delicately.

"Oh, yeah? Do you really think she came here alone? I brought her here _from _the tower."

He raises an eyebrow, a question clearly on the tip of his tongue. I put my hands on my hips.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm her true love. Go ahead, ask her."

For a moment he looks like he might laugh or throw me in the castle dungeon, but after a moment, his eye twitches, and he turns to open the castle doors. "Very well, then. You realize if your story is false, you could be put to death if the princess were to request it."

"She won't," I say confidently, and he goes to talk to another guard, who raises an eyebrow at me, then leaves for another room.

We wait for what feels like forever, and then a whole brigade of people come out of the room, following the guard and lining up. They all have trumpets in their hands, and I raise an eyebrow, unable to remember things being this formal back when I spent a lot of time at the castle with Aiden and his parents.

"Announcing…King Alfred, Queen Patricia, and their niece, the future queen…Princess Spencer!" one them declares, and the rest immediately begin playing their trumpets. Show-offs.

Spencer comes out first, probably wondering what the heck they've been summoned here for. There's a small crown on her head, and she's wearing a skirt and cleaner shirt, but otherwise she looks the same. The second she spots me, her eyes light up and she runs over to me, exclaiming my name. If I wasn't already busy being smothered in a hug, I'd stick my tongue out at that guard.

She pulls away when she realizes I'm not hugging her back, giving me a quizzical look while my eyes dart from her to the king and queen, who are now watching us. I swallow heavily, then whisper, "Spencer, we need to talk."

I'm not sure whether she hears me or not, and a second later, she drags me over to her aunt and uncle by the hand. I consider bowing or curtseying, but eventually decide against it.

"Spencer, who is this?" her uncle says, and she squeezes my hand, grinning.

"This is Ashley, from Farwell. You know how I never really answered any questions you asked about my true love?" Oh, God. She has to shut up. Now. Please. "Well, Ashley's my true love and I want to marry her. We can rule Corinth together."

Well, way to drop the whole bomb all at once…wait, what?

The king and queen and even the guards are basically gaping at her, and her aunt finally says, "Excuse me?"

"Yeah," Spencer repeats, more firmly this time. "She found me at the tower and kissed me and everything."

"Spencerrrrrr…" I singsong into her ear through gritted teeth, and she finally looks over at me while her aunt and uncle fume in front of us. "I really don't think this is a good idea right now…"

"You're not marrying her, Spencer," Alfred replies, seemingly more level-headed than his wife. "She's…a _girl_."

"I don't care. I love her."

My eyes practically bug out at that, and then, just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier, the castle doors fly open and Glen tucks-and-rolls right on in, Mojo at his side.

"Mojo!" Spencer exclaims, right at the same time I question, "Glen?"

"Glen?" Alfred and Patricia echo incredulously, looking over at me for confirmation, and Glen whips his mask off and unsheathes his sword simultaneously, eyes darting around the room, moving from face to face.

"Ashley, Spencer, c'mon. We're leaving."

My mind catches up with what's going on, and I swallow heavily. He's ready to take Spencer back to Carmen's, whether she and I like it or not.

"Prince Glen has returned!" one of the guards announces incredulously, drawing Glen's attention.

"What're you talking about?" he retorts, and Spencer looks confused for a moment, until I hold out my hands and shout for them all to just shut up for a second. I'm still breathing heavily as I start to put the pieces of this puzzle together, thinking aloud.

"Spencer, you said your parents died when you were little. Glen, so did you. And…and I heard someone say you were a prince, Glen, so…you two must've been separated somehow after your parents died. And Glen's older, which means he should get the throne anyway. Not Spencer. Right?" Spencer actually looks a little relieved at this, and I turn towards Glen again, trying to silently convey what I want to do next. "And Glen…" I sigh, shaking my head. "I'm sorry. I can't do it."

He straightens up a little, looking between Spencer and I's joined hands while Spencer shoots me a confused look, and then swallows a lot like I just did. "Well, that's what I'm here for, right?"

My heart starts pounding even more frantically than it already was, and my eyes widen. "She's your _sister_!"

"Ash, what's going on?" Spencer asks quietly, squeezing my hand, and I close my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.

Glen speaks before I can. "We went over this, Ashley. Just because I know Spencer's my sister, doesn't mean things have changed. I've spent my whole life an only child." He shakes his head. "I'm not a prince. I don't even feel like a Carlin. But I _do _know that I've been paid already. She's going to Carmen's, whether she likes it or not."

"Okay, I never said I had a problem with going to Carmen's," Spencer cuts in pointedly, looking back and forth between us. "I'll just probably need an escort now. It's no big deal. We'll go, I'll give her a lock of my hair, and then-"

"She doesn't want your fucking hair, Spencer," I snap at her. "She wants your soul."

Her mouth falls open in surprise, and I immediately regret what I've just said. "Wh-what?"

I run a hand through my hair, thinking for a moment, then sighing gently. "She never wanted your hair. I…I lied so you'd come with us. To turn Aiden back into human, she needs the pure soul of a princess. Apparently, you were the only one that fit the bill."

"So…this whole time…you've just been leading me to my death?" she asks quietly, and I can tell she's holding back tears as she drops my hand.

"At first," I say hastily, keeping my voice quiet. "That's why…why I didn't want you to like me. It would've made things easier. But, Glen said…I mean, Carmen predicted…that I'd fall in love with you and I wouldn't want to do this. That's why Glen was hired, partially to keep us safe, but partially to get the job done. And she was right." I take a step towards her, biting my lip. "I _can't _do it. I'm in love with you."

Spencer steps away from me as soon as the words are out of my mouth, looking me up and down like I'm a whole new person. I can already tell she probably hates me.

"Look, as much as I hate to interrupt, we've got about a four day trip ahead of us, and the wedding's in six," Glen cuts in, brandishing his sword at the guards. "We're leaving, whether you all like it or not."

We all stand here for a moment: Glen, me, Spencer, the king and queen, and two guards. Oh, and Mojo.

Then the room erupts into chaos.

The two guards rush at Glen, Alfred grabs Spencer and Patricia and pulls them out of harm's way, I shoot Spencer a pleading look, trying to get her to understand how confused I've been these past few days, and Mojo screeches loudly and flaps over to Spencer, latching onto her arm. That makes Patricia squeal and run for the exits, then Alfred runs after her, and I take advantage of the distraction, grabbing Spencer and pulling her from the room, into a nearby closet where we can hide. Mojo flaps away, presumably to go help Glen, who he's apparently taken a liking to over the past few days.

"Get off of me. Don't even touch me," Spencer spits out, trying to push me away from her, but I grab onto her arms even tighter, holding her in front of me.

"Spencer, you have to believe me. The last thing I want to do is hurt you."

"Yeah, right. Just like you didn't want to hurt me while you were busy _leading me to my death_?"

"That was a mistake. I was confused. My family's been poor my whole life and I just…" She starts struggling against me again, and I grip her tighter, wrestling with her until I've forced her into the wall. "I just wanted to help them!"

We're both silent after that, breathing heavily, and she finally whispers, "But you wanted me dead."

"I didn't know you."

"And now that you do?" she questions in a whisper.

"I…I wanted you dead," I confirm. "Now I just want _you_."

I let my eyes fall to her lips as she asks, "What about your family?"

"I don't know," I answer honestly, stepping away to give her some space now that it at least seems like she'll listen to me. "Aiden and Kyla's wedding can't happen unless you're dead. But I don't want to let you die, so…I guess they can't get married."

"And what about Glen?"

I'm suddenly aware of the sound of metal clashing one room over, where Glen is apparently still fighting the guards. "He's had like over ten years of martial arts training," I inform her. "We don't stand a chance." My voice comes out choked on the last word, to my own surprise, and Spencer lifts a hand to my cheek, running her thumb over my bottom lip in a way that makes my breath hitch.

"Is this going to be a Romeo and Juliet kind of thing? Where we both die together?"

I shake my head. "He needs you back at Carmen's alive."

"What about you?"

"I don't know." I lower my eyes. "I can try to protect you from him."

"He'll kill you."

"…I know."

She places a finger under my chin, tilting my head up until my eyes are even with hers. "I don't want you to do that. Just…agree to take me to her, and we can figure something out on the way there. A way to escape. And when I'm Queen, everyone in this castle will have to protect us."

"What if we can't figure out a way to escape?" I point out quietly, and that hangs in the air for a moment until Spencer gulps.

"Then…this is the last time we'll be alone before I…" She trails off, unable to finish the word, and our eyes meet briefly while my ears tune in to the fighting still going on outside. Apparently even more guards have shown up, and it's taking a while for Glen to fight them all off.

"Yeah," I finally agree, and then Spencer's lips are on mine and her hands are in my hair, tugging me closer frantically while my arms slip around her and I kiss her back just as enthusiastically.

We move around so much that everything else in the closet is crashing to the floor, and the thumping sounds that echo throughout the closet every time our backs hit a wall are definitely loud enough for people outside to hear, but they're all too busy fighting to care.

Spencer's hands fumble with my pants while I'm already pushing her skirt down, and she groans when I slip a hand up her shirt and grope at her chest, my lips finding hers again as she takes my underwear down with my pants. I put more pressure into our kiss and force her against the wall, reaching around to place both of my hands on her thighs and lift one over my own, opening her up a little more. Her breath is hot against my cheek as she warns, "I'm a virgin", and I nod, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I know."

I adjust her underwear slightly so it's out of the way and slip two fingers between her legs, closing my eyes shut and trying to imprint this moment into my memory so that I have it no matter what happens afterward. My fingers explore for a moment, and Spencer moans into my ear when I find her clit and circle it a couple of times, before sliding my fingers down a little and pushing one inside of her.

Her grip on my shoulders tightens noticeably, and she clenches down on my finger tightly until I press a bruising kiss to her lips, letting her wrap her arms around my neck and lose herself in it while I withdraw my finger and then slowly slide it back in. Her thigh tenses over mine and she bites down on my lip just enough to draw blood, but I ignore it and add another finger, loosening things up a bit before I start pushing in and pulling out again. My thumb finds her clit and strokes around it in quick circles while I speed up my fingers, and Spencer's hips rock towards me instinctively with every thrust, meeting my palm at just the right moment every time.

"I love you," she breathes out between pants and moans, and I'm surprised when I start to feel tears building up in my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I whisper to her, squeezing my eyes shut. "I'm so sorry things had to turn out this way."

She shakes her head, then leans back to rest it against the wall, moaning softly. "No, I'm glad that you were the one that kissed me."

I can't help chuckling a little bitterly. "Yeah, you can say that _now_…"

She opens her eyes and leans forward to press her lips to mine, smiling into the kiss, but then her lips quickly part and she groans into my mouth again, pulling my body to hers and begging for me to go faster. I curl my fingers inside of her instead, and she immediately presses her palms into my back, crushing me to her even further as she clenches down on my fingers and breathes out my name, rocking back and forth for another moment until she stiffens completely and buries her face in my shoulder.

A few more grunts and little ripples later, and it's over. I can tell Spencer's struggling to stay standing up, even though I'm helping her out by pinning her to the wall, but after a few more moments of heavy breathing, she regains her strength, then presses her lips to mine in a way that I can tell isn't just a "thank you" kiss for what just happened. Before her hands can get any lower than my hips, though, I grab them quickly, forcing her to stop and listening carefully for noise outside our closet. There's silence. The fighting's over.

I pull away from her and reach for my underwear and pants, already starting to pull them on, and she lets out a whimper of protest, trying to pull me to her again. I give her a resigned look. "Spencer, we're out of time." I get my clothes on and force her to start putting hers on, too. She looks like she's going to cry, but we don't have time to dwell on it, because just a few seconds after we've both gotten completely dressed, the door to the closet flies open, and there's Glen, beckoning to us calmly. When neither of us budges, he sighs.

"Look, we can do this one of two ways."

There's a long pause, and I don't know what possesses me to do it, or what I think it'll accomplish, but I'm out of the closet in a second, barreling into him so hard that he falls to the floor with me on top of him. Spencer cries out in surprise, and Glen rolls us over quickly, glaring down at me as he fumbles for his sword and lifts it up just a little. I try to push him off, Spencer screams again, and then everything goes black.


	6. The End

**A/N: Last chapter! I hope you guys were at least a little entertained by this story, and thanks for reading! :)**

* * *

When I wake up, it's to the feeling of a soft pair of lips pressing lightly against my cheek, and a throbbing head that feels like it's taken a beating from a heavy rock. I groan lightly, feeling someone stiffen next to me, and it's then that I realize I'm lying down, and there's a person lying down next to me. A person who's just kissed me on the cheek.

"Spencer?" I whisper, my eyes fluttering open, and the first thing I see is a pair of blue eyes staring right back at me. She forces a smile, and I glance down, noticing her hands are tied, and so are her feet. When I try to move, I realize mine are, too. We're in the back of some kind of stagecoach, and the occasional clomp of horse hooves tells me that it's being pulled by a couple of horses. Glen's obviously in the front seat, whipping them occasionally so that they'll go faster. Mojo's around here somewhere, too; I can hear him screeching every now and then.

"Hey," she whispers back, kissing my forehead this time. "You've been out about a day. Glen hit you in the head with the handle of his sword." She looks worried. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"Like my head's about to burst," I say honestly, trying and failing to successfully sit up. "Where are we? Why are we in a stagecoach?"

Spencer bites her lip. "Glen carried you for a while, but then we ran into more thieves. He fought them all off and took their stagecoach, so…here we are." She swallows. "He says we'll get there in another day or so, now that we have this."

My eyebrows furrow, and I reach for the ropes on her hands with my own hands, starting to undo them. Spencer jerks her hands away sharply, surprising me. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Untying you," I say like it's the most obvious thing in the world, because…uh, it is.

"Don't," she says gently, avoiding my eyes. "We're in the middle of nowhere, anyway. It's no use. Without Glen, we'll just be unprotected from anyone else that might attack us."

I sigh. She's right. "We're just as bad off _with _him, though," I point out anyway, and she nods.

"I know. But you're hurt and at this point I just want to get things over with."

"Things?" I echo incredulously. "Spencer, this is your _life_."

"I know," she repeats. "But now Aiden and Kyla will get married, your family will be set for life, and you can be happy."

"You know that's not true," I murmur. "I won't be happy if you're…"

"Don't worry about it," she cuts in gently. "Don't even think about it right now. I'm here with you." She leans forward, joining our lips, and I don't know what else to do but kiss her back.

* * *

"Almost home," Glen calls to us early the next morning, after Spencer and I have basically just kissed and slept for the past 21 hours, only eating on one occasion. My hands are trembling by now, and I'm regretting that one meal because I think it's about to come back up. Spencer looks a little pale, too, so I bury my face in her neck and tell her I love her, unable to put into words how completely heartbroken I feel right now.

I know she's wondering a lot of things right now, and that she's more scared than she's acting. Last night, she thought I was asleep, but I heard her whispering to herself, wondering aloud if it would hurt. I'm pretty confident I won't ever be happy again, and the current plan is to down every potion in Carmen's hut and hope it kills me too, because I don't want to live without Spencer.

I guess we will end up like Romeo and Juliet, after all.

Glen carries Spencer inside Carmen's cottage first, ignoring any pleadings we have, and then comes back for me once she's inside, lifting me up and taking me inside with him.

He sets me down, and, to my surprise, unties me, gripping me by the shoulder and practically offering me to Carmen, who's busy walking around Spencer in slow circles, examining her. Spencer's tied up to a chair by her chest, arms, and legs, and I can see her trembling by now. I'm all cried out at this point, and I think she is, too, because both of our faces are dry as Carmen turns to look at me.

"You fell in love with her," she states, tutting and shaking her head, and if I had Glen's sword right now, I'd kill her on the spot. "Not that I blame you." She traces a finger down Spencer's cheek, ignoring the way Spencer flinches away from her. "She's pretty, isn't she?"

"Shut up," I snap, and Carmen frowns like she feels sorry for me.

"Alright. I'll get it over with." She pulls a small glass tube out of her pocket, glancing over towards the steaming cauldron across the room, which draws my eyes to it. "Everything's ready. I just have to give her this. Her soul should pop right on out and head for the cauldron. Then you can head up to the castle and give this to Aiden." She takes a step towards Spencer, and so do I, wrenching myself from Glen's grip.

"Please don't kill her," I whisper. "I don't even see what's in this for you."

She pauses at that, then smiles. "What's in this for me? Why, I'm glad you asked." She glances over at Spencer, who looks back at her furiously. Carmen tilts her head to the side. "Do you remember me?"

Spencer's anger disappears momentarily, and her eyebrows furrow. "…No."

Carmen sighs, then turns back to me. "I'm the sorceress who put Spencer here to sleep. But it's not surprising that she doesn't remember me. I've changed a lot since then. I change my appearance often, actually." She claps her hands, spinning to face me again. "Revenge." She clears her throat. "Thirty years ago, I was just like you, Ashley Davies. I lived in a poor family, in a small house. My mother hated me. I'm sure you know the feeling. Then one day, back when I used to be into _guys…_" Ha! I _knew _she was gay! Well, sort of. "…I fell in love." She sighs, almost wistfully. "His name was Arthur Carlin."

Spencer's head turns so fast that her chair almost topples over, and my eyebrows furrow while I try to remember where I've heard that name before. Glen stiffens behind me. "That's right. Your father, Spencer. He left me for the prettiest girl in the city. Paula. They married, and I was completely forgotten. I dedicated the rest of my life to sorcery, intent on getting revenge on him, on _them_, for what they did to me. I settled in this very cottage, biding my time. Imagine my surprise when I heard they were ruling the city together, with a kid under their belts! So I put my magic to good use. I killed them, and to this day, nobody in that city knows for sure who did it or exactly _how _they died." She sighs. "So when you turned fourteen, Spencer, your aunt and uncle needed someone to take you to that castle, to the tallest tower, and put you to sleep. I took advantage. I foresaw what would happen. I knew Aiden Dennison would come stumbling into my territory years later, and I knew the perfect incantation to use on him. And what better way to get my final revenge on Arthur Carlin than to get a girl _just like I was_ to bring his daughter to me?"

She steps forward, then, and lifts the tube to Spencer's lips. "Now open wide, Mrs. Pure Soul…" My feet are frozen to the floor as she forces the liquid down, but Glen dashes forward out of nowhere, knocking Spencer and her chair over as he pins Carmen to the wall by her throat.

"You killed my parents?" he growls, and I hurry over to Spencer, kneeling down beside her while she coughs, grabbing at her own throat.

"I said…no relation…" Carmen chokes out, and now Glen looks like he might cry.

"You lied! I spent my whole life an orphan because of you!"

"Spencer," I'm busy murmuring, shaking her lightly, and she finally stops coughing and opens her eyes, blinking a little. Her mouth opens, and I watch, horrified…until she lets out a small hiccup, and a small puff of black smoke comes out of her mouth. Then she smiles.

"That tickled."

I sigh in relief, grinning as I grab her hand and help her up, undoing her ropes while Carmen admires the black smoke rising towards the ceiling. Glen's still pinning her to the wall, his sword at her throat. "What does it mean?" he questions, glancing at the smoke and jerking her a little as her eyes continue to follow the black wisps.

"Interesting…" she finally murmurs, her gaze falling to where I'm still helping Spencer get untied. "I'm surprised I didn't guess this would happen." She furrows her eyebrows, smiling almost knowingly, and I've officially decided that she's insane. But I don't really care, because Spencer's alive, and that's all that matters. "You two had sex, didn't you?"

Spencer starts coughing again, and I pat her back awkwardly, watching her face flush.

"What does it mean?" Glen repeats, jerking her again, and Carmen rolls her eyes.

"It means her soul isn't pure anymore. It's been tainted."

"Aw, I tainted you," I whisper to her, wrapping my arms around her and pressing a kiss to her temple, and Spencer just buries her face in my shoulder and lets out a barely audible sigh of relief. I pull her even closer and close my eyes, smiling when she finally hugs me back.

"Alright, now what about me? Was I just a tool, too?" Glen growls, still focused on Carmen, and I break away from Spencer to look over at the two of them.

She laughs. "Yes. You're their son. Once again: who better to use to get their daughter here?"

"That's so fucked up," he mutters, running a hand through his hair.

"What about the potion?" I ask, jumping into the conversation. "Did you even need her for that?"

"Well, I _was _going to reward the both of you, for bringing her to me," Carmen replies. "Glen got the money; you got Aiden turned into a human again. So, yes, I did need her for that. But without the soul, it actually has the opposite effect of what all of you were going for. Without the soul, the potion just serves the same purpose as the incantation I used on Aiden."

"What does that mean?" Spencer asks.

Carmen shrugs. "It'll just turn the drinker into a horse."

* * *

**The next day…**

"Are you sure about this?" I ask tentatively, reaching over to put a hand on Kyla's shoulder. She swallows heavily, nodding at me without taking her eyes off the object in front of us. "Mom'll be pissed, not to mention…well, obviously, it's a big decision."

Her eyes finally leave Carmen's cauldron and find mine, and she bites her lip. "Ash, I love him."

I sigh, resigned, then nod slowly. "I know. I'm just…you're my little sister, you know?"

"I know." She forces a smile, then steps forward, wrapping her arms around me. I hug her back, smiling over her shoulder at Spencer, who's in the doorway of Carmen's cottage, watching us with what looks like baited breath. "I love you, Ash," Kyla whispers, stepping away from me.

"I love you too."

She nods, then turns around to look at Spencer, giving her a shy wave. Spencer waves back just as shyly, and Kyla whispers to me, "Am I going to like her?"

"You better. We're going to be spending a lot of time together over the next few years," I warn, and Kyla grins.

"Well, she can't be too bad if you fell for her."

"Hey!" a new voice calls from just outside, and Spencer steps out of the doorway to let Glen in. "Found him. Took forever to get him snuck out of the castle, though, especially since he wouldn't shut up. Luckily, though, almost everyone was still down in the dungeon, interrogating Carmen."

"Wouldn't shut up?" I repeat quizzically, and Glen beckons to something outside the cottage.

In trots Aiden…in horse form.

"Hey, babe," he says, and Kyla gasps in surprise, running towards him.

"You can talk?" she asks, watching him close his eyes contently when she pets him near his nose.

"Yup. You'll be able to too, hon."

"Oh, God," I mutter, but they both ignore me. Spencer smirks from the doorway, and Glen walks over to the cauldron.

"So how're we gonna do this?" he questions, reaching to stick his hand in, and I grab it quickly, stopping him.

"I wouldn't touch that stuff, if I were you."

"You're probably right," he agrees.

Kyla finally pulls away from Aiden and steps over towards the cauldron, and we all watch her intently as she dips her finger into the liquid. Spencer joins our little group and slides her hand into mine, squeezing lightly and sneaking in a quick kiss, then grinning at me when she can tell I'm upset she's pulled away. She gestures towards Kyla, and we all stare in silence as my sister sticks her finger into her mouth.

There's a little poof, and then the smoke clears.

"Ah…fuck," I hear her say, and even though the horse result is expected, it's still surprising to see one standing next to me where Kyla used to be. "My head _has _to start itching right when I can't scratch it. Do you think you could get it, Ash?" I reach towards her, wrinkling my nose. "Yeah…right there, between the ears…"

"This is so weird," I whisper to myself, and Kyla pulls away from me, trotting towards Aiden and nuzzling him gently. Even though he's a horse, I can see him smiling. Okay, they're _kind of _cute together.

"Alright," Glen says abruptly, all-business again. "So where are you guys gonna go?"

"We were thinking maybe somewhere rural, out of the way," Spencer tells him. "Are you sure you don't want to go with us?"

I can tell by the tone of her voice that she's thinking about the fact that he's her brother and they practically missed out on their childhood together, and I think Glen can tell, too.

"Nah. There are still more bandits to be taken care of." He reaches forward and ruffles her hair playfully. "But send me a letter or something. Let me know where you settle down. I'll visit sometime." He pulls her in for a hug, flashing me a smile, and I give him a hug, too. We follow Kyla and Aiden outside after that, and I help Spencer jump onto Kyla, who frowns noticeably.

"You know, even though I'm a horse now, this is still really awkward."

"I agree," Aiden comments. "And you're heavy, Ash."

"You'll get used to it," I promise. "I just wish we had saddles."

"We'll pick some up next village over," Spencer suggests, winking at her brother as Mojo flaps on over and attaches himself to her arm. "Hopefully I've inherited some of my brother's sneaking skills."

"I don't think it's genetic," Glen replies with a sigh. "But you guys take care of yourselves, alright? I'll see you around."

We all finish saying our goodbyes, and Aiden and Kyla start complaining the second Spencer and I dig our heels into their sides.

"God, just tell us to go," Kyla mutters, and Aiden swishes his tail up, whacking me in the back.

"Ow!"

"You'll get used to it," he mocks, and I flick the back of his ear, grinning when he whines and Spencer giggles.

"This is gonna be a long trip," she points out, and I nod my agreement, wincing when I hear a soft squelching sound from behind me.

"Aiden, are you _shitting_?"

"A horse's gotta go when a horse's gotta go."

"Ew." I force myself to ignore Aiden for the time being, looking over at Spencer to see her leaning down and whispering something to Kyla. My sister's ear twitches in response, and then she moves closer to Aiden, which, in turn, brings Spencer and me closer together, too.

"I love you," Spencer tells me, reaching over and grabbing my hand, and I squeeze it lightly, grinning at her in response.

"I love you too, _Princess _Spencer."

She smiles faintly, turning to look straight ahead for a moment while her thumb slides against the back of my hand. "Actually, I don't think I wanna be a princess, after all. It's way too much drama." She wrinkles her nose cutely. "From now on, just call me Spence."

"Only if you call me Ash," I agree, leaning over to kiss her and ignoring Aiden's and Kyla's "aww"s from somewhere below us.

And in our own special little ways, we all lived happily ever after.


End file.
